


Belated (prologue)

by MilayaMilenZeal



Series: MIA Brother [2]
Category: Spectrobes
Genre: Post-Game(s), Two-way junction story, minimal spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 10:25:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9319538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilayaMilenZeal/pseuds/MilayaMilenZeal
Summary: It's been 12 years since Rallen's brother, Rex, disappeared on a mission, and 2 years since Rallen and Jeena defeated the Krawl a third time. Life continues as normal, until Rallen receives a rude wake-up call in the middle of the night... one he had been waiting for for 12 years.His brother, Rex, was alive and he was coming home!





	

Rallen sighed heavily as he dropped down onto the couch of Jeena’s dorm, completely bushed. “Man, that was annoying…”

Jeena smiled with a shake of her head as she walked into the kitchen to fix them something to eat. While their last mission had hardly been that difficult (in comparison to saving the universe from the Krawl three times over, that is), it had been, as Rallen had pointed out, an annoying mission. They had been sent on a mission to deal with some rogue criminal group, along with a few NPP officers stationed on Nessa, and they had spent almost a week out in the desert with no breaks trying to catch them, and another five days of chasing them around the ruins before they were finally able to apprehend them.

So, yes. It had been an annoying mission.

Upon their return, Commander Marks had managed to talk Grant into giving the pair some (well-deserved) time off (however she had managed, Jeena almost didn’t want to know). Rallen, naturally, had been ecstatic. Jeena was, too, to be honest, but she hadn’t been as vocal about it as Rallen had.

Which put them where they were now; in Jeena’s dorm room in NPPHQ, to catch a bite to eat, and also to discuss what to do with the two weeks “vacation” that Marks had arranged for them.

As Jeena worked on some sandwiches, she looked over, just to see if Rallen was still slouched back as though he’d run for 5 hours straight (since Rallen didn’t get tired unless he ran for longer than 4 hours at top speed). However, when she looked, she was surprised to see him holding a small portable device in both hands, his eyes fixed on the screen and his thumbs working rapidly as though he were typing.

“What are you doing?” Jeena called out, making Rallen look up in surprise.

“Huh? Oh, this?” Rallen asked, briefly holding up the device. “I’m writing a report on the mission to Rex.”

“To your brother?? But I thought he…”

Rallen’s older brother, Rex, had also been an NPP officer, and a very good one, if Jeena’s investigations in the man’s background were correct. Though, much like Rallen, he’d had some difficulty in finding a half-decent partner for the longest time, up until he had been paired up with Commander Liz Marks, also an NPP officer at that time. Almost 12 years ago, however, he went missing on a patrol mission when there was a glitch in their cruiser’s system. Only Marks made it back home to Kollin, and Rex had been MIA ever since.

“Yeah… but… well, I gotta keep him posted on what’s going on, right?” the orange-haired NPP said, giving a small shrug. “That’s why he gave me this thing, anyway…”

“Oh? What is it exactly?” Jeena asked as she walked over with the plates of sandwiches.

“Well… I guess it’s… like a journal, I suppose… Rex has one, too, and we always used it to exchange what’s happening on our sides of the city,” Rallen explained. “When I was young, I always hated it when he went on missions, since I wanted him to stay home… He was the only family I had, besides mom. So he made this thing for me so we could stay in touch even if he was on missions.”

“Ah. I see… a sort of private mail system, huh?” the girl mused, picking up a sandwich to munch on.

“Something like that, yeah…” Rallen murmured, briefly setting down the device to grab a sandwich.

“…You think he’s still alive?” Jeena asked after a moment.

“Rex is tough. He’s not gonna let a cruiser blowing up on him take him down,” Rallen said, but his voice was almost… a tad uncertain.

Jeena wouldn’t blame him. From what she had gathered, both through Rallen’s words and her own private investigation, Rallen and Rex were really close, so it would make sense that he’d think his brother was alive. But after 12 years, everyone would start to have doubts.

Rallen had actually shown her a few pictures of his brother before, and she had to admit, those two really _did_ look alike, very much so. Rex had the same orange-red hair and orange-golden eye color as Rallen, but Rex’s hair was often tied back in a loose ponytail and hung down to his shoulders, while his eyes were sharper, same as his facial features, though that might be just because of the age gap between him and Rallen (which was almost 14 years if Jeena remembered correctly). However, in the few pictures she’d seen of Rex, his eyes were alight with the same impish mischief as Rallen’s often were, and he was often seen grinning at the camera in a similar way to Rallen.

Her partner always spoke very fondly of his brother whenever they ended up on that particular subject, and he’d often say that Rex would have loved to meet her as well. Jeena was sure she would have loved to meet him as well; if he was anything like Rallen, she was positive that they’d get along just fine.

“So… your messages always arrive at Rex’s side?” Jeena asked when Rallen went back to typing.

“Well… they’re not sent back… so I’m assuming they are…” Rallen said, but he almost sounded like he was straining for a reason to actually keep writing to his brother, even if there would be no answer. Any kind of reason, really, but Jeena wasn’t about to point that out. She didn’t want to rob him of whatever kept Rallen from writing to his brother about what was going on while he wasn’t around.

Finally, Rallen pressed the final buttons and hit “send”, before clicking the portable shut and tucking it away again in his gauntlet.

“Right, so… anyway, what shall we do? With our ‘vacation’, I mean…”

“Hmm… good question… what to do?”

And so they spent the rest of the day thinking of good ideas of where to spend their time off.

 

 

Rallen wasn’t sure what had woken him the following night, but when he realized that he was being denied sleep he groaned and curled up a little further on the bed, attempting to catch a few more z’s before he could wake up fully. However, as he soon realized, once his consciousness began to creep back in on his mind, there was no way for him to get back to sleep, so he snarled and leaped up from the bed.

“Alright! I’m up! Now who the hell’s making all the racket?!” he demanded angrily as he got to his feet.

As he looked around, though, he couldn’t see anyone or anything out of place, making him grumble slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“What the hell? Why did I wake up randomly at… 3:20 in the morning. Shit. I need more slee… …wh… what??”

Rallen’s jaw dropped in both surprise and shock as he realized what it was that had woken him; the portable messenger Rex had made him (which was now connected to his computer to recharge) had beeped loudly and was now flickering with a deep blue glow, signaling that he had a new message. And the only one who could send messages to him through that was…

“…Rex…?”

Wide awake in an instant and his earlier annoyance forgotten, Rallen dashed for his desk and snagged it from its docking station, flipping it open immediately once he had it in his hands. But he wasn’t prepared for what he saw…

“Wh-what?! Over 1000 new messages?!” Rallen could only stare at the display, scrolling down the list of new messages a little, noting all the different subjects and wondering just what the hell some of them meant, anyway. And more importantly; where had all those messages come from?!

**_BEEP_ **

Rallen almost dropped the portable with a yowl of surprise when it beeped in his hand, but he caught it mere inches before it could hit the floor. He scrolled back up to the beginning of the list and saw that he had just received another message. The subject of the message was, strangely enough, “Yipe”. Wearily, as though afraid of what he’d find, he pulled out the stylus and tapped the newest message.

 

_Wow! You don’t sit still AT ALL, do ya, Rallen? I’m away for a little bit and you damn well spam my inbox with messages, eh? Then again, I probably ended up doing the same with mine, didn’t I? I guess that’s a bug in my… well, our little system; it can send and receive, no problem, but if the distance becomes too great, the messages just… Well, they don’t “disappear”, but they just float around and wait for the other side to get back into range. I admit, that’s my bad, but what can I say? I only got the basis for programming, so sue me! Wait, actually, don’t sue me; I probably ain’t got the money to pay for that at this point._

_And here I go getting off subject again, heh._

_Anyway, first up I want to say this; I’m sorry I’ve been away so long. I got… side-tracked. And it’s kinda difficult fixing a shuttle in a place that has yet to grasp long distance space travel. So… yeah, sorry. That’s all I can say, and I know it’s never going to make up for everything I missed, but… I hope you can forgive me for being away for so long._

_Second, I really don’t think this ship will last for long, and from the looks of things, I’m somewhere around the edge of Nanairo. Looks like Sector Y, but I can’t be sure. I’m going to try and reach Ziba, and if I can’t, I’ll try to get to Himuro, at least._

_If I make it to Ziba, I’ll see if I can catch a ride to Kollin ASAP, and if I can’t… well… I’m going to need a ride home, I suppose. Hope you don’t mind picking my sorry ass off that hunk of ice._

_Also… do me a favor and tell Liz I’m sorry, kay? She’s gonna sock me to the jaw when I show up after so long either way, but I’d rather she not be TOO angry when I see her… If you can tell her now, that should take a bit of the edge off from her temper. At least a little bit… I hope…_

_Gotta log off for the moment, but I promise I’ll be home soon!_

_Ja ne._

_-Rex_

 

For a long moment, the orange-haired NPP officer didn’t move. Hell, he didn’t even blink, as though that would make the message disappear, somehow. Eventually, he had to blink to prevent his eyes from drying out, but no matter how many times he blinked, the message didn’t fade away.

It was still there…

It was still…

There…

It was…

Still…

There…

It…

Was…

Still…

There…

“……ha… haha… ahahaha!!”

And Rallen laughed. He laughed so hard that tears sprung to his eyes. Laughed so hard that his legs soon gave out under him and he collapsed to the floor in a heap as he clutched the portable close to his chest, his shoulders shaking and a big, relieved grin on his face. It took him at least a full ten minutes to calm down and by then, he was choking on hiccups as his tears splashed down upon the ground. He wasn’t crying because he was sad, for once, and that was why he didn’t bother trying to stop them from flowing; he was just so _relieved_ that he **had** to cry.

“…he’s… he’s alive… Rex… Rex is… brother… hahaha… he’s alive… he’s alive! HELL YES!! I KNEW IT!! AHAHAHA!! I **KNEW** HE WOULDN’T KICK THE BUCKET LIKE THAT!! I KNEW IT!!”

Leaping back to his feet, Rallen pulled on his jumpsuit and boots, foregoing both his uniform’s jacket and the gauntlets for once, snagged up his portable from where he’d left it and took off running down the hallway, his boots slamming against the floor and the sound bounced off from the wall. He didn’t care if anyone heard him running through the halls. For all he cared he could make enough noise to wake the dead and it wouldn’t be loud enough for him.

He wanted to cry out. He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream until the entire planet… the entire system heard him.

His brother, Rex, was alive and he was coming home!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of a story with two completely different outcomes. The remaining chapters will be posted as separate works; "Belated route A" and "Belated route B". Both start from the same origin, but will progress and end vastly different.


End file.
